


A Coalmine's Worth

by Mimiga



Category: Poppy O'Possum (Webcomic)
Genre: Alcohol, But suddenly sadbird, Gen, Shenanigans, These two things together, shitty prose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-27
Updated: 2016-06-27
Packaged: 2018-07-18 15:38:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 22,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7320961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mimiga/pseuds/Mimiga
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"There were no intricacies to a horny cat drunk off their ass. Mary had no inhibitions, no scarred thought processes that deprecated and tore, regret was hardly even a word in her lexicon. Wouldn't it be just so much easier if Hallia could throw away all that weighed on her and live like that? But alas, she was not Mary, and such things were impossible. There were debts to pay of literal and metaphysical kinds. There were many things in the past that she would much rather forget but couldn't. And most nagging of all, there was always something especially trivial to prove to herself."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In Situ

The cat and the canary meandered down the empty twilit street with little a care for the time, even as the bare sky above them darkened completely from the brilliant gradient of violets that reigned sovereign not an hour ago. That air of complacency for the fallen sun had been in regards to how late they would inevitably retire, however; not to how it sapped any remaining warmth from the atmosphere. Hallia's complaints lied in that shivers were constantly threatening to run down her back and flare her feathers out from beneath the dual-layered silken dress she wore. It seemed the scarlet fabric could catch passing chills just as well as eyes, an ill-fitting choice for wandering about in a section of Canopy unprotected by any barricade of giant foliage on a biting autumn night. 

But as she looked over to Mary, who had carelessly decided on sporting a drastically skimpy skirt and a likely ill-gotten black leather jacket over her revealed midriff, there wasn't even a hint that she cared for the gnawing cold. It was baffling the unnatural resistance to temperature she possessed, and it made her all the more likely to crack a joke about how every weather was a good one to get naked whenever reminded. Perhaps that really was the answer in the end. Too many instances of public indecency in too many places could have just ushered a tolerance onto her skin. Or it could have been the numbing effects of alcohol permanently integrating themselves into her nervous system. That was as good a guess as any other. 

She eventually did catch on to Hallia's wayward stare, glancing back with a shared confusion. "What? Did I forget to wear a shirt underneath this again?" 

"Nah, just wondering how you're not freezing to death," the canary said and looked instead towards the distant rows of houses with vastly varied shapes and sizes, all with the subtle intention to abide for the species of their owner. There was hardly more than one or two illuminated windows to any single abode despite how young the night remained. Autumn must have sunk itself into their bones, the season's whisper willed their subconscious to become more reclusive in preparation for the coming winter. It was certainly a smart urge to obey before one could make some sort of poor choice, something to the tune of wandering about in the least insulated clothing possible. "Do you know if we're getting close to the party or not? My beak's going to freeze off before long." 

Expectantly, her response began with a shrug. "Hey, all I heard was that there was going to be free food and beer somewhere in this high-middle class district tonight. It's a good enough lead for me, I've followed worse around here and still got rewarded. Most of these people around here are just rich enough that they'll start to drain themselves on public functions and parties. This is where I steal most of the quality stuff I end up getting." 

"I thought you said you were invited?" Hallia said, shoving past the mist representing the condensation of her breath as it met with the air. It occurred to her too late that Mary probably wasn't actually invited to anything at all, her very presence an unfortunate happenstance to be likened to a natural disaster. "Isn't that why you told me to get my best clothes on? I bought this dress just last week, I'm not going to ruin it by getting thrown out into the lawn. Aves knows the kinds of charms that repel dirt are way above my pay-grade." 

"I never said that! I said someone told me where a party might be. Or at least, that's what I was trying to convey by saying I was invited to a party. Whatever, whatever. The point is that we're dressed like this to blend in, that's so we DON'T get kicked out too early. The people who aren't running everything typically don't expect people who look the part to be unwelcome. That's how it works, and you wouldn't believe how consistently I can tell you that and be right." Mary's grin was unbefittingly large for the topic, seemingly gathering size from the pride of being a professional parasite to society. "Besides, you're the one who agreed to go somewhere with me in the first place. You already knew the stakes before we even left my place. Anything bad that happens to you is your own damn fault." 

The truth took a bite out of her retort, twisting it to the defensive before it left her throat. "What else was I supposed to do? It's been a boring week, and I haven't done something stupid in a decent enough while. Whatever disaster this ends up being already beats sitting in front of the TV like a vegetable again." 

"To be fair-" Mary began with a coy edge to her voice. "-you were never meant to be an interesting character in the first place. I'm sure it wouldn't have made much of a difference if you continued to act like an overgrown potato." 

Hallia motioned to throw a punch only partly playfully in her direction, yet the cat was wise enough to have already moved out of her soul patch's range. "Will you get off that already? At least I'm not the comic relief whose life is so far down the drain that they've already looped back from the purification plant." 

It was difficult for Mary to muffle her laughter from the safe distance she took, falling back in pace a few feet to ensure the harm she deserved didn't come. "Don't hate on my life style if you can't even take the heat. It's a lot better than slaving over papers all day and reveling in my own emptiness. It's probably good for your personality that you accept my degeneracy as entertaining." 

"Whatever, just keep listening for anything that sounds like a party bouncing off a few miles of houses," she forced herself to relax with a sigh. "It's gotta be around here somewhere. We're going to be walking around like idiots out here all night if we don't at least make a serious attempt at scouting it out." 

Mary managed to catch up without much of a problem, returning to wander side by side. "You're sure the eager one to show up somewhere you haven't even been invited to. What's up with that? Is the cold getting to you that bad, or do you just have something brash you want to show the world? Not many people are specialized specifically in jazz hands, you know." 

"Well, I mean, yeah. Both of those." Hallia stuttered her reply out and shrugged. "Fuck you for the jazz hands thing, but having something to prove is more or less the reason I agreed. I've just been thinking-- maybe I'd be a little more content with myself if I went out there and caught a cute guy, you know? Nobody excessively attractive, just a nice dude with a decent smile." Something connected mentally upon comparing who was grinning standing beside and what she was saying. "N-not in the way you do it, Aves no! I mean in the normal getting-their-number kind of way. You can keep your sluttiness and that whole region of thought in general to yourself." 

But it was already too late, and the nun had sped ahead to walk backwards with a detestable smirk painted across their face. "Nyohoho, but then why did you wait to come along with me to do it? On the prowl tonight with Mary Moonshine, oh you have no idea how long it's been since I've genuinely went double-teaming," she said before closing the distance and twisting around, using the motion to wrap an arm around Hallia's side and pull them together. "Sweetheart, all you had to do was ask and I'd have already given you my entire arsenal of tips and pointers! What, did something make you think I'd keep it all to myself?" 

The first attempts Hallia made at pulling away made it clear that the effort was futile. "That's the thing. I'm pretty sure doing anything you say regarding this topic is a bad idea, especially so for the kind of people you tend to attract most. Frankly, you'd just land me the opposite of the guy I want in addition to probably making me look a lot more desperate than I am. Sex isn't really a main objective of mine, not that you'd have an easy time comprehending that an average relationship can exist." 

"Who do you think you're talking to here? I'm literally the greatest grand-master of unwanted seduction and broken vows on this side of the Fenneclands. You won't find anyone else who knows the details quite as well, regardless of the unsavory bunches you seem to think that information garners," she boasted loudly, her booming voice echoing from the walls of nearby homes, and finally relinquished her grip to make a few dramatic hand motions. "You'd think that everything I have to say would be worthless, that it'd attract the wrong variety of man, but I assure you that my techniques work on just about anything with a pulse. And now, for the right price, I might even think to give you some of the most controversial and hidden tips there is. I probably would have still given them to you for free, but imagine how hurt my feelings became when my absolute BEST friend started to doubt me so." 

"I'm not paying you, Mary. I don't even want or need your help on this in the first place." There was a brief silence that followed in which only their rhythmic footsteps on concrete and the gentle ambient hum of the city could be heard. The wind whistled past and made extremely conspicuous the quiet that persisted. 

But Mary would not become speechless so easily. "You know what? Since I take so much pride in being YOUR friend, I'll give you the first few lessons for free! I can't just leave one of my best buddies hanging, right? You might be eaten alive by the crowd if I refused to help, after all." 

A chuckle caught in the Canary's throat. "You can keep your words of wisdom to yourself, I'm going to be fine. Just because it's been a while doesn't mean I can't land a decent guy by myself. While you're off doing whatever illegal or illegitimate thing it is you're going to do, that's probably when I'll make my moves.. Actually, you know what? I'm curious. What advice were you even going to give me? I can't imagine anything that's any more useful than some of the more convoluted stunts you've told me about." 

"Well I can't just tell you, stupid," she replied, the hollow sound of a balled fist bouncing off her skull gave emphasis enough of the motion she made. "We don't even necessarily know what the situation is with this party, who's there and whether or not there's anyone there that would tap your ass naturally. And how can I impart the most confidential of my accumulated knowledge when you don't even have a target? Your mind would be blown if I just started dropping secrets willy-nilly, and all of this would be pointless." 

From her beak fell a sarcastic "Sure," before the somber quiet once more descended upon them. They wandered onward deeper into the suburbs in relative contentedness despite the chill which rested still on the occasional gale. It was an amusing thought that Mary would jump so readily to coach her when the most radical thing she planned to do tonight was on par with someone's number. If they could manage successfully slipping into a party they were complete strangers in, how could she break a sweat from a simple task like that? In the depths of her stomach, the phantom of a churning feeling made certain she didn't quite forget the inevitable rustiness that manifested in the social joints of her mind. It really has been a depressingly long time since she's even tried something like this. 

With their perceptions peeled, they continued down the sullen street in search for any signs of liveliness at all among the slumbering district. You'd think that the absence of activity would make this rumored commotion easier to find, yet it only served to dig into her enthusiasm with the longer nothing happened. Hallia could only imagine how foolish or misfortune they seemed should an observer manage to catch their aimless dogged march. The self-fabricated story of a bird shivering in a fine dress with a cat that she probably stole from a strip club didn't really feel all too appealing from within. And this accursed cold, it was quickly beginning to numb her extremities and sting abrasively at her eyes and throat. If not for saving time, the canary prayed to stumble upon their destination sooner just to find warmth amidst a crowd. 

This journey had actually been long enough that Mary began to occupy herself with the flask she had hidden away before they departed. It never ceased to amaze just how much that girl could stow away while wearing the most revealing of clothing, as that drink was but one of two other aluminum containers that Hallia witnessed her conceal. Yet only the one she held now was filled. The others had the nefarious purpose of stealing away with whatever alcoholic beverages she could find during he party for later personal use, but the first would surely be used in a similar way once it ran dry. Mary served the idea that she would do better and give more purpose to the drinks the host offered than any other guest. An alcoholic needs it more than a stuffy noble dickass, she would always say that kind of thing to justify the theft and typically followed the response with a haughty swig from whatever was in her hand at that second. 

It wouldn't be for another few minutes until the dearth of life came to a gentle end. In the far distance came the unintelligible yet recognizable wafting of music on the wind, but its exact direction remained unknown. Using this faint sign as a radar, they attempted to follow down dark passages until the sound would grow ever-slightly louder and more clear than before. The lead would take them deeper towards the heart of the neighborhood, where mild white lamps hovered overhead to illuminate their quickened steps as they passed artificial lawns and ornamental gardens. It was a pleasant avenue to the eye, sure, but the superficial nature of the people indigenous to it strangled the air with a tangible degree of wealthy pride. Nothing says 'I'm better than you!' like a yard lined with glowweed imported from halfway across Flora. 

Their, or at least her prayers were finally answered as the music became easy enough to understand the lyrics to. Hallia had been so focused on trailing after the sound that she failed to notice Mary's leaning until the feline whispered something over the increasingly obnoxious pop song. "Alright. I know we're finally probably here, but there's always a chance that this guy doesn't actually have any friends who aren't their own species. If that's the case, this whole operation changes and you're out your opportunity for a boyfriend tonight. But, you will be my lookout so that I can sneak in and swipe whatever it is they're drinking. Deal?" 

"Mary, I'm not going to stage a heist with you for a few bottles of beer or whatever. If we're not welcome, I can probably just go home and avoid getting chased forcefully out instead." 

She leaned in even closer. "Would you REALLY not want to? You say that like I wouldn't even share." 

Apprehension crossed the canary's face for but a moment. A dash through her brain of fleeting thoughts tugging in opposite directions, but one alternative seemed to stand out more than the choice of being an overgrown potato. "Well, maybe a little. But-" 

"That's the spirit!" Mary had already grabbed Hallia by the bend of her wing and sped ahead to expediate their approach. "But that's only if we can't get in through normal means. Remember that a nonchalant entrance is key to seeming like you've belonged all along. Avoid anyone that looks important for as long as you can, and if we get kicked out too early, you and I are going to formulate a battle plan far more interesting than the dull papers you spill ink over all day." 

But coordinating a heist was one thing they weren't in need of doing tonight. Twisting around the corner of the block revealed a front lawn possessing a more than varied enough assortment of species to warrant an infiltration. Given detail by both a nearby streetlight and the glow diffusing from an open front door, many a fraternizing individual clumped into the confines of the property and happily chattered away to one another with drinks in hand. Though there was a majority of sheep to the immediate eye, such was the general expectancy of the Ovis tree's own city. As they slipped to the side of the road and hid from sight behind the hedge of an adjacent yard (the generally needless motion filled her with a giddiness only known around Mary's shenanigans), a song from two years ago blasted from some unseen yet powerful sound system within the site. Rich enough to afford a house here and throw parties, but not quite to install an outward area sound-wave suppressor for the perimeter of the house. A shining example of this neighborhood's wealth. They would have probably never found this place without it, so she was thankful nonetheless. 

Mary crouched down and stuck her head slowly past the trimmed wall of leaves to have one last gaze into the party before they tried to enter undetected. It seemed she had already forgotten her own advice, as nothing about this was nonchalant in any sense of the word. Seemingly having finished the awkward ritual and gathered whatever information it was she was searching for, the feline stepped back and clapped her hands together excitedly. "Okay! Nobody around this block seemed to have complained about the noise, and since there is absolutely someone that should, they must have been all already been invited to the party in the first place. That's a green light for us to sneak right in without much possibility for fault." 

"I should hope so," Hallia began, peering into the hedge and stowing the confusion of how anyone could see through such a thick block of foliage. "There's more people in that front lawn than I know personally in all of Eggton. It probably wouldn't be too hard to walk right in and arrive as we were." 

"Pssh. To be fair, you're not exactly a pillar of social interaction," she grinned and turned back towards the wall of leaves. "We'll see. Catch you on the other side, Alpha Bravo." Without any further ado, Mary tucked her head in and somehow slipped into the hedge without so much more than an initial rustling. She had disappeared completely in that single moment, a terrible sign that it was not a movement unrehearsed. 

She would have asked the purpose for having carefully went over the specifics of entering without drawing attention, only to have her perform the most conspicuous motion that didn't involve pyrotechnics, but Hallia refused to be left behind in such a flashy fashion. Whatever esoteric plan Mary had hatched at that second was likely just due to her being more or less bored of sane means. It wasn't actually too strange now that she thought about it. All she had to do was to walk around the corner and pretend to have been there all along, right? Or would it be better to actually stage a normal arrival and be less suspicious altogether? Even thinking about this to such a careful degree was how to have her cover blown before she had even been noticed in the slightest. Just walk right in, that's all. 

And that's exactly what she did. Overwhelmed but unfazed by the barrage of stimuli, Hallia turned the corner and took the first few steps of a natural stride into the lively yard. Nobody seemed to even bat an eye at the newcomer avian, it felt almost as if she were already a ghost to them. Each face continued to their tasks of blathering away or listening intently without showing any heed whatsoever to her appearance. It occurred to her only now that these people were far too enamored with flirting among themselves to care for the subtle changes around them, and that was a grave hurdle to leap if she wanted to pluck a cute one from their conversation without drawing much attention. 

Besides a great deal of loquaciousness, most of the noise emanated from within the host's opened home. The outdated themes thrummed from past the bright entryway; perhaps it was so those who chose to linger outside wouldn't be left deafened by an empty night? It was clear from that fact alone that this party was no boring tool for the wealthy to form relations and connections with one another. Hell, just in a short walk's distance was an open cooler oozing a chilled mist over plenty more full bottles than the crowd had consumed yet. This beautiful dress might actually make her stick out against this indifferent kind of congregation. If she would have known it was going to be this easy to fit in, she might not have spent that half hour on cosmetics alone to dull the color of her feathers. 

Although it was probably important that she find Mary before the either of them got into trouble, there wasn't really any urge to act so hastily upon that. It was much more pleasant with this apparent invisibility to have a bit of a wander, maybe try and deduce what this party was about and why exactly it came to be while she was at it. Those dressed in t-shirts and slacks proved easy to weave past, more likely to greet her with a raised glass and a smile than accusations. Even the serious few who adorned themselves in gaudy outfits were more than integrated with this frivolous atmosphere. Getting around wasn't a problem, but there was hardly any emphasis gained on this celebration's original purpose despite the good minute she searched. Perhaps it was simply spontaneous for the sake of itself? Any other event would at least have decorations. 

A gasp was ripped from the depths of the canary's lungs as a pair of hands planted themselves suddenly on her shoulders and twisted her around. Almost immediately did she feel silly for letting her heart skip a beat, as to gaze frightened upon Mary was like having a phobia of whiskey-soaked cotton balls. "Ssh!" she held a finger to her lips. "The belly of the beast is secure, no known bogies are on our trail. I cracked the rail unhitched and took the snake's journey successfully." 

"..What?" 

"I broke in through the bathroom window and walked through the house. Nobody cared that I was there so we're good," Mary emphasized, rolling her eyes. "The guy in there really didn't seem to mind, so apparently this was already my kind of party to begin with. We can probably go about from here like we own the place." 

Hallia tilted her head to the side. "Why would you break in through a window? I literally just had to walk into the perimeter of the house and I was already practically transparent. It's not like there's a whole lot of security going on around here," she said and gestured to the decreasingly sober people laughing and leaning their wholes against a warped tree. 

The feline nodded, seemingly having not paid any attention to what Hallia had said. "Now that we know how this place is running, my job's going to be a lot easier and quicker than I thought it was. And do you know what that means?" she pulled the both of them uncomfortably closer together and pointed their bodies towards a majority of those lounging in the yard. "It means I get to help you with your little problem right away. See anyone you like?" 

Her hushed tones made it difficult to hear over the obnoxious music that pumped from behind them, but Hallia could assume the gist of it judging from the touchiness involved. "Ah, not really." Her eyes scanned the many faces that were laid out before them, the bright expressions and tight features that they wore pulled the stare more than the bottles in their hands. But as she gazed on, it was quite obvious that there was no significance in any of them. Nobody would catch her eye more particularly than any other grinning the same grin, and any attempt to convince herself of an attractive sight resounded twice-fold with hesitance and disbelief. It was simply too painfully average out here, even the distant cardinal was painted a somewhat boring shade of feathers. "Yeah, I'm not really seeing anything special out here. 

"Seriously?" Mary exclaimed far too closely to her ear. "I can see right now at least... six guys I would bang. And one girl that's pretending to be one, but that's beside the point. You've gotta learn to stop being so picky, or you'll end up never settling for anyone at all." 

Hallia finally did manage to break free of the iron grip around her torso. Ethereal hands brushed out the imperfections made in the scarlet fabric. "Having an average amount of standards doesn't equate to dying alone. So what if I don't want to bed anything that moves? Have you not noticed yet that I'm a lot pickier with off-species candidates over all the time in the past that we've window shopped? Just watch, I'll land one of the hottest guys here and prove that I've still got it." 

A scoff was what came her way at the claim. "Whatever, dweeb. We've got the whole night for you to find a target, so I suppose you've got the room to be a teensy bit more specific. Just make sure you don't procrastinate all this time away trying to find the perfect boyfriend, because they don't exist. I would have absolutely found them by now if that were the case. Not that they'd let themselves fall to my bullshit anyway, but I've covered plenty enough ground by now." Mary gave a wink and continued as if she fully expected the blank stare that would follow. "If you find someone, hit me up before doing anything else. Now get out of here and get to looking, I gotta go get hammered and probably give a few accidental blowjobs." 

The feline slinked off into the midst of the crowd to do what she did best, and accompanying that fact was the obligatory hope that they didn't get ejected soon because of it. Hallia blew a sigh through her beak as she glanced toward the gaping front door and into a fragmented picture of what the inside was like. It was quite a mighty undertaking she just agreed with herself to accomplish, especially with how many years she's been content with an empty nest. Every single time she'd have the fleeting opportunity for a date in between, her self-esteem and schedule would always manage flawlessly to deter her from acting upon it. There would have to be some semblance of a plan tonight if she truly wanted to get over this crippling weight she had placed over her own confidence. 

Past the door came first a flourishing wave of warmth that served to both soothe and sting. Pleasant as it was, the heat was very blatantly created by the existence of so many bodies within one shelter. There was a distinct difference between trapped body heat and artificially generated comfort, after all. The entryway itself wasn't much more breathtaking than any other, high upon its plain white walls were memorabilia and framed pictures that told fond stories of their owner. Judging from the common character among them, it seemed most likely that a tan reptile lived in this house, though the images were too small to examine the exact type. The base panels were of a deeply-colored, over-polished wood and was embellished with a pattern of intricate decorations. Still, it didn't do much to make the insides any more impressive than the Quibble household. 

That same rich wood encompassed a stairwell of actually considerable grandeur to the right of the entry, the top shrouded thoroughly in darkness. Its mild size suggested further that the homeowner was definitely not indigenous to the Ovis tree, though they certainly had a lot of friends from around these parts if the composition outside was anything to go by. Anyone among the other guests that looked like those found in the pictures were probably best avoided for the time being. The party itself was fairly apathetic towards unfamiliar faces, but there was no telling if someone higher up in the hierarchy would take so kindly to absolute strangers waltzing about in this home. 

Hallia traveled further down the front hall with a scrutiny about her. Few loitered among this vital passage, likely do to its already questionable fit for intermediate sizes and the shining wooden doors lining either side. She could tell there was more than enough space to coexist ahead as the hallway looked to open up into a warmly lit room. A few pairs of people passed lazily by while the canary pierced through and into the den. It was significantly more impressive a sight than what the first impressions conveyed, most notably and grabbing was the massive projection on the western side of the house. The entrance to the theater was plenty large enough to peer through and reveal what seemed to be the verdant field of a Hateball game, or at least the programming of one that had yet to start. That explained the somewhat bland radio station playing, and why someone sounded to have just turned down the volume a few notches. At least the bass line was decent on this current song. 

It was still too dark within to peer into the room and judge its seating capacity. From what she could see, it had maybe a few people who arrived early to the show and conversed among themselves while waiting, but there was no telling how many seats went unfilled from here. This place is probably going to open up much more once whatever festivities planned to happen finally begin. Maybe this party was arranged because of some sports event that was happening tonight? It'd be news to her, following sports was one of the last things she'd ever do. Wasn't it a little late into the autumn to be having these kinds of things? 

The eastern portion at a glance was already less intimidating than the hundred thousand nibble theater system. Closest to her was a series of recliners that surrounded a multi-layered stained glass table, which had been covered in binders and books originating from the many bookcases along the otherwise modest walls. Those who found it irritating to stand upon an entire lengthy conversation chose to utilize these brown leather seats out of convenience. That didn't stop a few clusters of talkative individuals from forming along the sides, though. It was also about then that Hallia glanced upward and noticed that the warm lighting over the den was literal, and the heat lamps were turned low as to not cook the guests the same as the reptilian owner would have probably liked. 

At the other extreme of the den was a glow much more intense pouring from a bare doorway revealing glistening white tiles and a likewise grey scale color scheme that contrasted with the wooden finishes seen everywhere else. If that hadn't convinced her that the kitchen lay ahead, the wafting odor of cooked foods and their seasonings ensured there would be no more mistakes. Hallia pressed on across the hardwood floor towards this entrance at just the same time as savannah monitor dressed in shorts and a grin moved to exit it. A pang of caution stabbed into her chest; there was all the possibility that she had encountered the host right away. It was enough to force her to turn and feign interest in something else nearby, whatever rested on the shelf to her immediate right would suffice. 

They passed by without so much of a blink towards her, but the excitement still rung in her chest regardless. It stood quite an issue that she was a complete stranger at this large gathering of friends and acquaintances. Even if it didn't seem like anyone cared to notice her presence, the foreboding feeling that she was the constant odd one out ate away at her concentration. But acting like you didn't belong was the quickest way to separate yourself, that much was more than apparent knowledge. This nervous impulse shouldn't be repeated if she wanted to achieve an air of nonchalant and calmness that, despite not having been invited in the first place, would make her seem like a part of the circle in the end. Mary did indeed have some hearty wisdom about her if you discounted the shadiness of her undertakings. 

After seeing what she had of the house, the kitchen brought little surprise in the way of luxury. The central counter was adorned with plate upon plate of readily prepared hors d'oeuvres for wayward hands to stumble upon, a healthy mixture of cooked goods and combined finger foods was available. Past the speckled marble surface and further in was a spotless arrangement of grey cupboards and the shining stations at which these treats were created. Sans a few pans left in the sink, everything had been scrubbed down to a rippling sheen for the celebration of tonight. The dedication demonstrated in the preparation might have rung a little more admirable had Hallia not have already plot a course directly towards a decorated square bottle surrounded by shot glasses. 

It was just what she needed to unravel the tangled mass of nerves preventing her from finally relaxing. The canary tilted her head back to expedite the liquid's journey down her throat, though it did manage to put up a decent fight burning against the back of her tongue and throat. A huff of effort smelling of whiskey fled from her lungs as the glass touched down against the hard surface, cleaned of all that had been poured. It seemed Mary made the mistake of sticking outside when the greatest drink to steal was front and center in the kitchen all along. This stuff was likely far more potent then whatever bland beer she was siphoning from that cooler. 

Ignoring the constant urge to sample any of the enticing dishes laid out at her front, Hallia exit from whence she came with a bolt of confidence within her breast. In addition to the pride of having refrained from such gluttonous instincts, the alcohol that had begun leaking warmth into her bloodstream would soon lift the burden of overzealous thought from her quest. She would undoubtedly otherwise find herself in a maelstrom of conflicting ideas if she did end up finding someone to pursue. But the key word was if, as when the canary took a decent glance around the den with her redoubled productivity, there remained nobody of significant warrant to speak of. There was just nothing going on. 

Of course, the option to drink until there WAS someone attractive remained available, but that probably wouldn't end well in the long run. Were her standards really raised too high? It's not as if she really went out of her way to know what perfection looked like. You'd think that all that time spent alone would drip a little desperation over the lens, but scanning over everyone visible once more revealed only a dreadful average to be present. At least some of them seemed decent enough at first glance that she wouldn't mind snatching them up should it come to it. What a nasty clause, 'should it come to it'. What exactly made her so superior over these folk that a tight scrutiny was even warranted? Disguised was her plumage to seem less vibrant and more feminine than it was, equipped with a brilliant silken dress to remain a hyperbole of herself; why should a symbol of mediocrity discriminate so aggressively towards her own kind? 

No. Not this time, leave those feelings of self-deprecation at the doorstep already. In this incessant purgatory where the only way to be rid entirely of her malicious thoughts was either less or more drinks, Hallia forced herself to wander towards the distant flashing projection of the theater. Her shamble was fueled by the internal turmoil of procrastination as the pictures grew larger, a distraction for her eyes while the rest waited for the whiskey to hit harder. But she cared not for the stimuli that rolled across the screen and decided it better to fall to the side of the room and hug the wall before walking like an idiot into an unprepared situation. Once a wallflower, always a wallflower. And with that fate, the uncanny and moderately depressing ability to eavesdrop on those who barely recognized her existence. 

But the outdated music that poured still from the speakers none too far away said otherwise about that plan. Sports commentary leaked out between and made it even more difficult to hear what was being said around her. The knowledge she might have accrued about this party in particular would have done well to ease her mind, attempts to pursue anyone romantically might very well be met with the brick wall that was her spontaneous entrance. What if one of the host's friends were cute and she accidentally was caught in the spotlight without anything to say? Ah, even now she was overthinking every single step to this simple process. The colorful projection yonder constantly tried to steal the attention of her eyes and hold them captive. It was probably a problem the owner had as well. Try as she might for minutes more, she could accomplish nothing in the midst of this commotion, be it passively gain information or mentally attempt to form a process on achieving her goal for tonight. Even now was her existence ignored. 

Alright, fine. She'd go outside and see how Mary was doing, maybe get a fresh breath of the freezing air in the process to help clear her mind. There was probably still quite a bit of beer out there anyway if she really did need to dip deeper into that territory. And who knows, Mary could have found out something about- 

"Hey." Was.. was that directed at her? Hallia turned her idle gaze from the theater and had to catch a quick breath in the midst of its birth in her throat. First, simply because she was too deep in thought and wholly unprepared to be noticed. Secondly, behind her was a peregrine falcon that she'd venture far enough as to say that he was radiant with presence. His feathers found a powerful mix of onyx, gray, and the slightest tinge of brown just beneath; wings tipped with a bold white that faded upwards. Their green eyes were wide and intense, a fairly drastic contrast from the modest stares she had seen so far. The brown coat he wore was far more simplistic and comfortable than the embroidered sheet that was draped over her. What hole did this guy suddenly crawl out of and were there more of them? 

"Uh, hi," startled and dazed, it was all she could manage while caught in the encounter. She was supposed to be the one doing the scouting, not the other way around. 

Coming forth from the bend of his wing was a white soul patch. He extended its influence forward, and in response did a hand materialize into position between them, poised to greet another of its kind. "I'm Maxwell. I didn't really see you around earlier, did you just show up?" 

"Y-yeah. Friend of a friend told me about it, thought I'd slip in and see what it was all about if I could." No, that wasn't right at all! Rule number one while going anywhere with Mary was to never create situations where you'd need to refer to her. It'd be game over almost right out the gate if the guests at this party were well-informed of the city's most infamous guest overall. Keen to move past the dangers of her stuttering remark, she extended her own projection of a hand and shook his. The temporary meeting of transparent pink and white elicited a small gleam to erupt within their palms. "Hallia," she replied warily. 

He nodded to this, apparently unfazed or uninformed that her presence here was entirely groundless from the start. "Good, that's good. It's been quite a nice time so far, all the better with more faces like yours around." Their wing retracted back into their side and pulled the light back with it. "I've got to get back with my friends really soon, but I just thought I'd say that you look particularly wonderful among the crowd. See you around more tonight?" 

Goddamn. "Yeah. Yeah, sure!" Hallia's response came off half as certain as she would have liked. She desperately still tried to suppress the flaring of her plumage beneath her dress, the attention and embarrassment mounting almost visibly. Despite the obvious flustered demeanor all about the performance, Maxwell gave a smile and his brief goodbyes before starting off towards the theatre where he had surely been all this time. She couldn't help but stare at his back for a few awkward seconds longer before forcing herself to look towards the wall just ahead. If anything, she had been silently expecting to remain a phantom all night and end up leaving empty handed like so many times before. A glance to the darkness of where the peregrine had went revealed nothing but the fact that some seats were filled with bodies. Were there more guys like that just beyond the veil? 

The battle had yet to be won, however. That was a pathetic display for what she had been working herself up to do. Even now she was coming up with better retorts and more clever responses then the stumbling coughs she instead said. Still, the potential was there that she had already won the night if that final push was already so close to reality, and her job had been made a lot easier with introductions out of the way. To think that she was about to make an attempt to surrender her standards the slightest amount to prove something so trivial and meaningless, worthless was the bet she foolishly made with Mary earlier. Mary... Now was the most golden opportunity to brag while still getting that fresh air her mind was craving before being interrupted. 

A giddiness had only now begun to manifest itself within the beating of her heart as she started towards the entryway and swerved past other guests. Whether it was from the whiskey or the peregrine was irrelevant, only that it animated a burst of confidence within and hastened her footfall across the hard floor. They hadn't even been here for more than a handful of minutes and there already blossomed the prospect of romance. A small part of her felt empty that it was not she who went in for the kill, but it was more then compensated by the reverence that she may very well have been attractive enough to approach. 

One step outside was all it took for the chill to rush into place between her feathers. The adjustment to the brutal disparity was quick, for there was too much zooming through her mind to care for such things. Even the music had become deafened to the reiteration of the brief but significant conversation in her ears. While it was normally far too easy to notice Mary in most settings, gatherings like this brought out either extreme to her presence. The nun's stealth within a drunken crowd was legendary if she wasn't otherwise making a complete scene out of herself. A quick glance about the lawn revealed that it had become far more barren of faces than when they arrived, the cold must have ushered them towards indoor warmth aside from a few steely souls. Those who could brave the night's abrasive touch were offered a much more serene atmosphere to exist within. Indeed, Mary was blatant among these few lonely souls, and was well within the process of harassing a visibly uncomfortable ram. 

"Mary! Hey, Mary!" The moment she turned her head to the noise, the ram had already began to slink away as discreetly and quickly as his form could manage. Which is to say, he took his relieved expression and fled to the door just barely beneath an outright dash. The nun had reached out a moment before, but words failed to leave her mouth before a scowl manifested. "O-oh. Sorry, did I- uh," 

"Nah, it's.. whatever," Mary replied as she approached with shoulders slumped. "I don't know why I was going for after that guy so hard, it was pretty clear almost immediately that he was going to be edgy around me. Probably has a girlfriend or something. The pussy." A shrug brightened her face as well as raised her posture once more to a natural pose. "Anyways, what are you doing running out here and shouting my name? I thought I told you our plan was mostly stealth? Or did I take that back and forget already?" 

A pink glow flit through the air to gesture the thought away. "Pff, stealth? With the way you were macking on that guy? No, forget about that for a second," Hallia did her best to slow the excited speed at which she wished to speak. "I've actually gotten a guy to notice me for once. Peregrine falcon, brown coat, gorgeous plumage, and I wasn't even the one who engaged in conversation! He just- he walked up to ME! That's a thing that happens so little that I'm actually suspicious about whether this is genuine or not." 

"Hallia! I thought I told you to wait until you've scouted ahead and told me before you make any moves! Now I don't even know if you've gone and messed it up," Mary sniffed and turned her nose to the air. "I can't believe you would go back on our plans. And for the record, I saw that dude earlier as I was coming in, and he doesn't seem all that impressive to me." 

"And you would know that much about the general quality of falcons?" The smug grin the canary was given just after she spoke told that yes, she DID know that much about falcons. Probably too much, more than anyone not of the same species or possessing the prowess of a sexual predator would care to know. Hallia quickly moved away from that topic before it had the chance to fester. "Look, the point is that I earned this by myself. I'm sure you weren't going to give me much useful advice anyway, but this proves that I wouldn't have needed help at all. I could probably have landed him by myself if he hadn't fallen into my lap first." 

A single syllable of a chuckle burst from the feline's throat. "What, you don't think I would have smoothed him out for you? Most people end up looking like saints when they're next to me, I'm sure that would have skewed his perceptions a bit." Taking any liberty to abolish all senses of personal space, Mary leaned in closely like she were about to impart a playground secret. She continued in a hushed tone barely audible above the ambiance. "Now put aside your silly pride and the fact that you don't have a lap and tell me what we're working with here. How'd he talk, what did he do before and after; just drop the whole exchange on me while you're at it." 

The meeting played back in her head, most notably to be ignored in the story was the anxiousness that had persisted in her gut and dumbed her responses. "I was just leaning against the wall and generally minding my own business. It was about the time I thought I about my next move, you know? Someone calls out close to me, I turn around and he was there just like that. We exchanged names quick, shook hands and all that, and-" 

"Hold on a sweet minute, you two shook hands?" To the nod in response, Mary burst into a chuckling fit. "That's so lame, oh my god. Who- seriously? Who would even do that?" 

Hallia frowned and tilted her head to the side. "Wha... No it's not! It's formal, there's no reason not to. What's so lame about shaking hands?" she shot back at the feline, still forced to speak above Mary's laughter and the music pounding away in the background. 

"Come on, this isn't a pucking business meeting. Half the people here have already gone through a bottle or two at least. You'd be doomed if you hadn't come along with your good friend who just so happens to be a professional lovemaker." Upon saying this, Mary reached into an intimate place beneath her jacket and took a swig from the canteen that had been hidden within. "Now just from that, I can tell that he thinks himself all clean and suave. Kinda stood like he was in front of a crowd giving a speech, meaning he spoke sorta like he was trying to impress a noble. I'd bet ten nibbles that he said you looked lovely somewhere in the middle of it and that was his reason for approaching." 

The canary glanced away. "If you're going to be that ambitious about it, he said I looked wonderful, not lovely. Look-" she inhaled deep, and let loose the stored breath as a mighty sigh. "I understand that you're trying to help, but I'm in a perfectly fine spot with this guy. The whole reason why I'm even here was to prove to myself that I could land someone on my own. Anyways.. part of why I came out here was to tell you that there's Jackal Daniels in the kitchen you were too hasty to check over. Just thought I'd let you know before someone else drank it all." 

Her face shifted almost instantly from mild amusement straight to grave seriousness. "There's WHAT?" Hallia barely managed to catch the opened flask thrust into her chest without spilling any of the liquid contained within. "Holy tits of the trinity, we'll deal with this later." 

Back into the house she rushed, very little in the way of hesitation for the canine who was attempting to exit at the same time. The only reason they hadn't collided was the deft maneuver Mary performed to slip between his legs, leaving him with a particularly baffled expression. Hallia hummed to herself and looked down at the aluminum container wrapped in pink light. With a shrug of her wings, she raised the flask to her beak and tilted her head backwards to swallow the wayward beer. Even having spent time against Mary's chest, the liquid was wonderfully cooled from just the temperature outside and slid down her throat much easier than the whiskey earlier. It wasn't even that bad a flavor compared to more common drinks, this must have been some decently expensive stuff. The recessive alcoholic part of her appreciated simply that the substance was entering her body at all. 

There remained no reason for her to persist in this cold, so after the nun she went and pressed inside once more into the wall of heat. Another kind of warmth had begun radiating from her core and was carrying a jovial relaxation with it. Perhaps the answer really was just more alcohol, as her insides slowly begun to loosen still from the knots they once were. Past the frames of unknown events and celebrations, through the hall of closed doorways and drifting savory scents, another passive gulp of the flask she held. Into the busy den where sound and motion clashed for supremacy over the other, but the beholder she was finally felt content with that. Just west and none too far away was someone that might very well be her's before the night was over. With that soothing thought, it was now that the party would surely begin. 

It was that new-found relief that would guide her towards the kitchen a second time, awakening the cinders of hunger where anxiousness had once resided in her gut. The reasons she withheld from the assortment of delicacies earlier melted away along with the gnawing urge to maintain her self-image in every way possible. How readily she had passed up on free food was astounding to her now, especially in a setting like this. It was a goddamn party, the food was made so that the guests could eat. 

Expectantly enough, Mary was the only capacity of the glistening room, and was more than concentrated on alternating between pouring whiskey into a silver container and taking sly gulps straight from the bottle. It was unknown where the second bottle had come from, as the first was very clearly poured dry on the corner of the counter. Apparently this process was so intensive that she hadn't even noticed the entrance of someone else to the room despite how vital it was to remain hidden. Hallia spoke up with a smirk. "If you spilled a drop, would you still lick it up if you were desperate enough?" 

The feline leapt into the air two feet and twisted around with wide eyes that grew progressively angrier as she recognized the new presence. A roll of her pupils and she turned right back to her delicate task, performed expertly considering how drunk she probably already was at this point. "You know what? Some days I'd dive off a bridge for a shot of hand sanitizer. Licking a spill off the floor is hardly the most radical thing I've done, and that's just what you count as in public." The lip of the bottle held steady to the flask in a way reminding of how an alchemist carefully mixes their volatile work. "Watch the entry for me. I'm absolutely going to get kicked out if someone finds me doing this." 

Perhaps Hallia would have obliged to be a better lookout had she not already gone into a platter of crackers stacked decoratively with a slice of cheese and some unidentified teal topping. Turning to glance at the exit, she popped one into her beak and crushed the mixture together in the side of her mouth. There was no hope in determining what was contained within the cool seasoned paste, her taste buds lacked the refinement to find a likeness with its vocabulary. What perplexed her most was that only in some parts of her maw was the taste repulsive and seemed otherwise fairly decent. The chilled beer held by her soul patch once more rose to rinse the remains away, but her face instinctively scrunched up as the liquid so violently clashed with the flavor left on her tongue. These two things were apparently never meant to come together. 

The resulting cough melded with Mary's joyous mockery as the room's acoustics perpetuated the sounds a second longer. "Oh man, you really haven't been to one of these things, have you?" the nun exclaimed, grinning ear to ear still. "There's a good reason why the beer was out there and the food was in here. And now you know why." Her point was noted, etched carefully into Hallia's brain as she downed the rest of the drink just to overwhelm the gruesome taste away. It was probably a bad idea in the long run, but anything to distance herself from the experience was worth the drunken blur of the future. 

"It's not like I've ever- eugh, ever had the time or opportunity to go out like this. How the hell am I supposed to know all these random facts?" the canary said and motioned to the platter of crackers. "I don't even know what's on top of those. Is it like, some kind of weird spinach paste or what? There is nothing intuitive about them at all, not a single sign that it and whatever kind of beer this is wouldn't mix." 

Mary finally capped the flask in her hands with a hum. "I kind of baffled you wouldn't know this stuff. The drinks outside were from a Sanctus brand, literally meaning you're supposed to drink them by themselves. Because they taste better than your average beer from the charming process, you get the trade-off that it tastes like garbage whenever you mix them with anything. It's such common knowledge that I didn't even think to warn you about it. Didn't you learn this stuff in the usual illegal high school parties?" 

"I'm not even going to get into why those didn't exist for me," Hallia replied, idly reaching for a veggie kebab that she could at least recognize. It was none too difficult to devour the first few pieces in a single bite, as voracious as she got under the influence of alcohol. 

"Hey, everyone was a total dweeb at some point. No need to get all PTSD about it," replied Mary as she stashed away her prize in a place everyone would think to look with how little variety was possible. "I don't really remember mine, but that's probably because I've been perpetually hammered for the last four years. Maybe I've been blocking something awful out this whole time and succeeded, I dunno. I don't think about it too much since that's kind of the point. It's not like I care enough to regret a lifestyle this entertaining." 

Hallia only gave a low hum as she hastily finished off the kebab and disposed of the wooden skewer, finding distraction as the savory tones of grilled peppers faded from her tongue. Her mind got to working once more, even through the haze descending from the corners of her skull. The intricacies of netting a cute falcon were far more daunting than they were complex. It all should come naturally with honesty. What to say and do is more a matter of instinct rather than planning, but that knowledge didn't stop her from worrying regardless of how silly as that was. Committing to this endeavor felt like more than just a quest for romance and self-worth, apparent mostly by imagining the deep hole she'd fall into should failure occur at the end of the day. As much of a big deal this wasn't, it was totally a big deal. 

"Hey Mary, do you think I should-" but as she turned around, the feline was nowhere to be seen. In her stead was a savannah monitor wearing an expression of disbelief, the same one she assumed earlier was the host and owner of the house. "Oh." 

But the reptile was not staring at her, rather it was the two empty bottles of whiskey on the corner that caught their attention most. They would exclaim next at Mary's handiwork without the slightest heed of the canary's presence. "Oh my god, what happened to the whiskey!? Not even an hour, what the hell?" 

Hallia, holding an empty flask still and believing thoroughly that this might be the only opportunity to slip away, tread lightly against the ceramic patterned floor as she fled from the scene of the crime. The music at some point had been replaced with the sounds of a distant Hateball game which served to masked her exit decently enough. It came to be one of those seldom appearing times where she was thankful for not having any talons to clack against the solid ground. To be fair, the fact that Mary hadn't brought up a red alert and wasn't already common knowledge among the party's populace was baffling. You'd think that she'd have slept with at least one of these twenty-somethings at some point. 

Back in the den and thoroughly out of harm's way, she relished the feeling of her sharp thoughts having their edges dulled so that they could not so easily penetrate into her chest. A concoction of chemicals in her blood worked hard to sand those razor points to a more comfortable degree, and the room had been painted a slightly blurrier and more welcoming color. At least when thrown into the fray did all this drinking come into play and begin lubricating her interactions more than it deafened her inner voice. Maxwell would likely be in the theater indulging in the game's beginning, so now was plenty a great opportunity to allow time to ebb away in the carefree flow of the setting, lest she pursue him in an unfamiliar topic and bring about looking like an idiot. Now was the time to flourish instead of fantasize. 

With a relative ease unbeknownst to the past Hallia too sober to traverse an environment without overthinking, she quickly found a nearby conversation to interject herself into. It was one of fashion and changing styles, staged by a dark-furred cat and female robin who seemed to share her idea of wearing higher qualities of clothing to an event where people were getting trashed. Nothing too difficult to slip into suddenly and nothing too personal that it would be considered taboo. A smile exchanged between these three strangers brought about another blossoming confidence that radiated about her body, a subconscious feeling just to remind her that these things were supposed to be easy. 

The topic itself she could perpetuate without too much fault. Her exposition to fashion was decently vast considering the ties she had to Miss Shiba and the errands retaining to them. It was where this virtuous dress had been sown in the first place; a costly endeavor that, even with a favor cashed in, took a great bite out of the her savings. A golden thread had etched an inch-high pattern across the linings of both the mantle and the dress itself, a detail to liven the glistening scarlet material and give gravity to wandering stares. Splitting along the back and nearest to the bottom were twin tails, but that was common among these kinds of flowing formal avian attire. It was simply so that her own tail would know freedom without sacrificing any attractiveness. Her previously barren wardrobe was eternally gracious for the grandiose addition to liven it up despite the cost. 

But their conversation was inherently shallow, and the trio would inevitably fall apart after it had become suitably exhausted. The resulting lull was quickly filled with a single glance toward the mighty presence of the distant projection as the animated aesthetics of the sport enraptured her. While she didn't understand nearly all the technicalities of Hateball besides the involvement of precision fury, it could not be denied that it was attractive to the wandering eye. The constant, swerving movements the players made to twist around flashing explosions of magical projectiles and showering sparks, produced just so with excitement and glamour in mind for the audience. It must have been an amazing thing to witness firsthand. 

It was quite apparent that she was far from the only one who came to this party for reasons beyond its purpose. She rather quickly found her place among the orbiting groups of individuals that danced around the fact that they had absolutely no interest in sports, the many who had flitted around the den and chose gossip before the thrill of sheer violence. Mary would have fit well into that criteria if she hadn't already dedicated herself to wherever enthusiasm was highest in a social gathering. You could hear her even from here shouting wild banter and running through a bout of gambling over the energy of the announcers. For the most part, though, there was very much an even split between those interested in Hateball and those simply here because it would be popular. 

Such was eventually reinforced by the words of a small sheep woman in a lace dress, whom Hallia would learn was actually a good friend of the host. Apparently it was not only commonplace, but encouraged for strangers to show up and meet people at the savannah monitor's social beckoning. Crashing parties was how they met most of the people here in the first place, to appear at his own without invitation was more like asking for a seat at his table rather than trespassing on something particular. That was likely why Mary was informed of its existence to such a vague degree that they were forced to scour this district for it. The message had likely become decomposed from hearsay until it finally got to them, where only a general location and their serving of drinks survived. 

The sheep's name would be introduced as Abigail, and only there did a clever idea begin to manifest in the pleasant fuzziness of the canary's thoughts. Maxwell knew to be here for the Hateball game, right? What was the chance that they knew the host themselves, and by extension, was mutually familiar with this woman? But alas, her prying would turn up cold on the subject of the falcon. Abigail claimed to know of him, but knew very little regarding any of the monitor's guy friends on account of her obvious lack of enthusiasm for the sport. There would be no sly digging around with anyone up here if she wanted to build more foundation on the guy she was chasing. They were things she'd probably have to discover by herself, but that was fine. Time was still a commodity at the moment. 

Yet moments had the terribly potent and discreet quality of slipping away far quicker than she could notice with the alcohol circulating in her blood. They passed just beneath her beak, and before she knew it there was the brash shouting of a commercial pitch coming cleanly through the speakers of the theater. People were beginning to rise from their seats, excused from the game due to a scheduled break point and dispersing to seek out whatever refreshments they desired. From the darkness they poured, some with grim expressions likely from the state of the game, while others carried a laughter about them that almost always came because of the friends around their being. A harsh reality dawned through the clouds of inebriation which told that time was inching onward. 

Within the diffusion of faces was both Mary and Maxwell as they went separate ways to their temporary destinations. Impulse pulled her first toward the vulgar feline. A familiar face for one, but there also held the possibility that she had interacted a decent amount with the peregrine by now. There could be a significant detail noticed by her keen eyes, some trait that could ultimately decide the canary's actions later tonight. She was a far greater judge of character than most detectives could ever dream of being. Upon approach, Hallia paid little heed to the eager-looking mustelid that the nun was pulling along behind her. 

"Mary, wait up!" she called out to halt their speeding off. It took a moment for her to respond, but as she did turn, pride dawned across the feline's face more conspicuous than the smell of alcohol on her breath. 

"Oh man, where were you when I was making the sickest guesswork? Seriously, I don't normally come to these things with cash on my person for exactly this reason, but hell if I'm not happy I did just this once!" Relinquishing a paw from the stoat behind, Mary began to use her hands for emphasis and warranted a step backward from everyone adjacent. "You wouldn't even believe it unless you saw it happening. Two hundred nibbles without question, and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing the whole time. I barely even knew a single one of the players OR who the teams were that were fighting and every single bet still came up kosher. They're probably going to kick me out for haggling or something!" 

Hallia frowned with impatience, a notion shared by the mustelid standing silently aside who was likely promised an unsavory task not long ago. "Uh, that's pretty cool and all, but- uh. You wouldn't happen to have gotten any beef on that falcon I'm after while you were down there, would you?" 

It took a moment for the feline's weighted memory to kick in, her face lighting up like the sun when the information finally did trudge its way to the front of her skull. "Oooh, you mean Maxie? The only thing I got on him is that he's a sore loser. And a broke one, at that! I gotta run for now, sweetheart. I've got Mary Moonshine things to do, if you know what I mean. Good luck on convincing that poor bastard to give you the cloaca or whatever." With that, her and the brightened weasel took off once more into the hall and towards whatever hidden place they could find. 

The canary sighed and turned her gaze to the back of the brown coated falcon she sought as he grew more distant in the opposite direction. Past the busy motion of every upright body in the room she stared on, watching him disappear into the intense white doorway and out of sight. Even through the haze of warmth, an unswerving pang of cold anxiety stabbed into her breast at the thought of screwing up now. How out of practice was she that the notion of a simple greeting became too much to bear? They've only spoken once throughout this whole party and already was the end resting just below the horizon. With the game's conclusion would likely come the ultimate moment to act upon her intentions, and she had been waiting to butter him up all this time only to be frozen against the hardwood floor. It was a forced movement to place one foot after missing foot to where Maxwell awaited, racing through her mind were doomed ideas of how to make the interaction perfect. Just. Act. Natural. 

Bathed in the harsh light that reflected from every bright color was the contents of a packed and crowded kitchen. The presence of so many stirred a cacophony of rowdy chatter, the energy of the game still heated beneath the wings of their excitement. The fridge had been cracked open and laid to bear a terrible rush from those seeking new refreshments on account of the counter cleaned of drink. So, too, did the clatter of distant pantries in halls beyond where she had wandered ring and give way to the crinkling of recovered chip bags. Maxwell had situated himself in the center of this commotion, sampling what was left of the decorated crackers instead of seeking junk food of a more pure sense. Hallia closed the distance with her needlessly pounding heart caught in her throat, trapping the gasp she tried to take in preparation. 

"Do you know what's the stuff in that paste? I can't for the life of me put my finger on it, though I swear I've had it before," she spoke up beside him, the pressure she tried to fight against mounting against her lungs. There was no excuse for her to be so nervous. 

He turned to meet the familiar voice, growing a modest smile upon being reminded of the bird who made it. "Ah, Hallia. Well, if my taste buds aren't mistaken, there's definitely a hint of veldt radish somewhere among the spineapple cream. I wouldn't blame you for wondering, it's an extremely subtle flavor in the midst of the cheese and all that. I'd have completely blown over it if I didn't cook for a living. Anyways, what have you been doing all this time?" 

Hallia loaded another deliberate breath into the back of her throat and smiled, completely unaware of what a veldt radish even was. "Just talking around mostly. Trying to get my bearings, meeting new people, getting into heated conversations, that boring kinda stuff. I've never been one to be so interested in sports that I would invest myself so ferociously in a game right out of the violet. Which reminds me, how's this one been going tonight? I can't really make head nor tail of what's going on just by glancing at the giant projection from afar, and the angry hollers from the seats aren't too easy to translate either. There's just been a bunch of disgruntled faces to go off of." 

Max's grin slackened at the question. "Not particularly well, I'm afraid. We're on the final few minutes and still sixteen points down. The chance we'd have the might to work our way back up to a tie are slim enough as it is, and would require something of a miracle at this point. And to top that off, I lost all my money to this slutty cat who kept betting on one guy from the other team to get full impacts. Every other time I thought to myself that she wouldn't get so lucky the next. Pff, I've only got myself to blame for that." 

"Mmn, that all sounds pretty nasty," she replied, holding her tongue about the destructive aura Mary carried with her wherever she went. A frantic flurry of thoughts rushed about the silence which followed. She ran through responses to spur the topic further, turned them down for fear of redundancy, and began that same process over on the same thudding beat of her heart. A rather mundane choice of words came to rest on her tongue, as the stretching lull was more frightening than a somewhat foolish phrase. "You think I can come down there with you and see the finale? I dunno, maybe I'd get into it at the last second or something." 

"Hmm.. It might not end up making much sense to you, but sure. I can't see why it wouldn't be fun. It's good to see that you're at least willing to try," Maxwell said as his expression reignited to the pleasant smile it once was. He popped the last of the platter of crackers into his beak and iterated his satisfaction with a dull crunch. 

With how little she cared for the sport, a pang of euphoria still shot into her at the opportunity well taken. Perhaps she was doing something right for once? "Thanks. I'll try to catch on as best I can, though I'm not exactly entirely sober at the moment." 

"Ah, we'd better get back then. Not much time left until the break's over." The room had filtered back into perspective, and suddenly they were the only souls present on this side of the house. Hallia managed to nod in agreement and follow his exit despite how jarring that mental transition was. Continuing with their footfall was the fluttering drum that bounced all about the inside of her chest, the last of the commercials boomed from over the closing distance. Why did she make it seem so difficult for herself? It didn't take a fucking witch to make small talk, much less in a setting this active and social. Now all that remained was the final hill to climb, which was as simple as asking someone their phone number. It would literally take a mere single sentence. 

The floor sunk as they entered into the darkness and came upon the first row of leather-coated seats. What was most apparent with her first actual steps within the theatre was that the sound system felt radically different compared to listening from afar. Not only had it sounded more dynamic, but she really could FEEL the difference as percussion filtered through her frame. Though it failed to improve the ad for canine toothpaste much. On carpeted steps, they tread carefully for the dimmed vision until Max's row had apparently came, where she followed meekly past many more reclined pairs of legs. 

It was quite clear that the seating arrangements of this place were designed to cater as large and vague a margin as possible. Most spaces could perhaps hold a decently sized species comfortably with allowance for adjacent viewers, and the shape was one that you would find in the intermediate seats of an actual event. That meant it was quite far from the standard avian perch, her tail managed to get caught a fair few times on the back rest as she tried hastily to settle down. The leather was cold, it was too cushy, and otherwise was quite far from perfect for her lower body to rest upon, but it would have to do. 

A murmur of joy traveled across the rest of the audience as a flurry of intensive graphics and statistics showered its complicated light across them. Not a moment too soon had the game began again. The enthusiastic bellowing of the announcers echoed through the chamber as they returned cheerfully to reiterating the status of the match and burning through statistics of players, all of which making little to no sense and passing out Hallia's other ear. Surely those who were invested enough to keep these hidden scores close to their hearts about the players would be glued to this scene, yet she could only see past the information at the scorched field where magical effects had scarred the stage. Whatever display of destruction that made them must have at least been a spectacle worthy of observing even if none of the specifics were understood. 

Try as she might to focus her eyes on the events unfolding on the explosive projection, they would inevitably drift to the right and accompany her thoughts. It was great and all that she was down here and sitting next to Max, but the question did dawn like regret: What now? Drawn across the falcon's face were intense, shifting shadows borne from the brilliant displays at their front. The contrast had ruled so powerfully over the room and its inhabitants that his expression was unreadable from this angle. Most parts of him would practically be invisible if it weren't for the occasional overwhelming blast of light. Her thoughts fought to maintain the foreground against massive waves of sound and the cheers erupting from every direction. The entire theatre worked as hard as money could buy to immerse her in the excitement, but she was too superficial to even acknowledge it for more than a few seconds. 

Most attempts to peel her gaze from its corner locked it instead onto the timer counting slowly down towards the game's end. It was such a prevalent aspect of her interest that she couldn't pay enough attention to know the reason for the jeering or celebration that commonly flooded her hearing. Five minutes and twenty four, three, two... Her chance to make a move before the party drew cold was synonymous with those ebbing seconds. Hallia looked to the inky blackness of the floor and frowned. What was there to do? This was no sappy romance movie where you were supposed to lean over and kiss in the midst, it was a goddamn sporting event for one of the most violent sports on Flora. She'd actually classify this as the polar opposite of sappy romance. It wasn't as if the surrounding crunch of chips was really going to help hold a passionate moment anywhere between. All there was to do was watch and wait, the brownie points she earned for being down here at all could be used in closing. 

Hallia shifted restlessly in her seat as that neon timer in the top center of the holographic projection continued on its course as slowly as possible. By the way it began to sound, the day had been lost for the favorite team a long time ago. Those who held hope for some sort of immense comeback defying mathematical probability were audibly scarce past the announcers' boom. A few steely souls persisted to shout for the remaining twists and turns of the game, but of the audience had already resorted to chatting amongst themselves. Some had gone as far to get up and exit the theater entirely, presumably most were to follow through and go home carrying this somber defeat. Even Maxwell had began to speak idly with the person to his right by the time three minutes had rolled around on the clock. From here, Hallia could only tell that they were feline despite her constant glances. 

Valiantly still did the disheartened group of players clash with their foes until less than a full minute remained. Their movements had wound down with the general energy about the atmosphere as seconds died. Finally, like a sigh, the bout of Hateball had reached its bruised and battered conclusion. Most everyone in the room sluggishly began to rise from their seats and moved to drunkenly pile into the den where farewells would surely take place. Hallia followed suite in this wave behind the blotched peregrine, who continued to hold a conversation with the cat despite traversing stairs. A billowing fear bubbled up inside her stomach from the sight, one she tried desperately to push aside. They were probably just friends or familiars who had stumbled upon an interesting topic is all, there was no need to get all wound up with such a vital moment rapidly approaching. 

But fate wouldn't have it so as she emerged from the dimness, if fate were a scantily-clad wheezing fake nun who smelled of whiskey and physical effort. "Hallia! Hallia, Hallia!" Mary didn't hesitate to latch onto the bends of her wings and pull the canary taut in their glare. "You NEED to tell me if you've seen that stoat from earlier! You know, kinda chubby with stupid hair and all that? I have to know if they're dumb enough to have come back to the party." 

Shaken and disoriented, it took Hallia a moment to digest the flood of words that blew her way quicker than an auctioneer could ever hope to shoot. "What? No, I haven't seen him at all. I also haven't been looking, I'm kind of in the middle of something important." 

"Dammit!" She stomped a boot into the ground, releasing Hallia in the process of her frustration. "That asshole stole my wallet. The whole thing, not just a few bucks. The whole damn thing right from under my nose, at the exact perfect time to get at where I hid it. I finished him off, too! Can you believe that shit? I can't even tell you how many times I've pulled that exact same stunt on someone else. How did I not see it coming? Aahg, it's always the mustelids that do this! I swear!" 

"Don't discriminate against an entire family, Mary. We're still in public," the canary said with a frantic but much quieter voice. A tiny part of her wanted to speak up, worried for the plight of her somewhat-friend and disapproving of how quickly she was writing the issue off. In the end, though, that percentage of her mind wasn't going to win her a cute guy by the end of the night, and nor was it going to stop trivializing her efforts tonight as shallow and self-serving... Damn, perhaps she should. "I've got to do something really fast, like really fast. I'll help you look for them in a second." 

An exasperated groan had no trouble escaping from the cat's maw. "Fine. I'll go check around the block one last time. And if I find him, ooh he's going to wish he had ran a few miles farther and jumped off the tree." She stormed off with that, marching through the dissipating crowd with a grim meaning to each her steps. Surely this would help the anxious question to flow along more quickly, right? 

The search began anew from where she had left off, as Maxwell was suddenly nowhere to be seen. Perhaps he wasn't going to be the one to ask her out, huh? Maybe he was just distracted. It didn't matter either way, this was something she was going to commit to even if he would not. At the very least she needed a straight 'no' so that she could go home and say she tried (though that probably wouldn't lessen the painful aftermath much). Hallia stepped to peer around corners and clumps of people, finding no trace of the black and brown splattered plumage she hoped for. An icy pang of worry haunted her chest cavity for far longer than it should have. Had he already left? It couldn't be, there was plenty a reason to linger for at least a few minutes longer. This single thing she set out to do, this sole little task that was about as significant socially as the drift of fallen leaves, it was slipping away from her incompetence alone. 

But the peregrine turned out to be present after all. Oh, he absolutely did maintain an existence at the party still, standing in the departing current within the sullen hall you would enter from. Still carrying that conversation that was so interesting with feline from earlier, who was revealed now to be the same murky-furred one Hallia spoke with earlier about Miss Shiba's recent lines. It was apparently such a riveting tale that their glares became half-lidded and entwined unshakably from one another. The silent canary's visage darkened as she witnessed the two stand close in the corridor, the distance between their faces closed for but a moment for their mouths to meet. The difficult task of bringing muzzle and beak together in harmony was waged silently through the background noise, but she was deafened to it all regardless. The kiss ended. They walked lethargically and side by side to the door and into the grasping night. 

Hallia stared at that same point while otherwise entirely frozen amidst the goodbyes and departures. The numbing murmur pumped about her body by her heart did little to push the sight away, though it promoted the hysterical chuckle that barely trickled from the bottom of her throat. Yeah, that was probably going to happen anyway. There were a million things she could have done better, but it was just that this circumstance was difficult to work with, right? It ended up being a Hateball game she was scouting in, and how was she supposed to know that beforehand? It was just a bunch of bad luck piling up to an even worse timing. That was all. The chuckle turned to a sob for but a single syllable, and then finally a sigh.


	2. Whitedamp

The cat and the canary moved together in their crestfallen march beneath the gaze of a harsh streetlamp and continued towards the next without a word between the two. Not since the last time they part had they spoken, as the air was too heavy to mold into words by now, though for their own individual reasons did silence reign. Hallia couldn't even find the will to complain about the cold that redoubled its efforts gnawing at her feathers and flesh, it hardly even registered as a flicker with the empty feeling locked inside her chest. The cinders of the party grew fainter and farther away with each sullen, drunken step they took in this indistinct section of Canopy. She could have probably looked their location up had the action not been bogged down by apathy. 

Opposing Hallia's forcefully blank expression was the disgruntled scowl Mary had decided to maintain. No doubt the ermine from earlier managed to escape successfully with her gambling winnings in foreign pockets. It was a decent while they managed to sulk beside one another, a good two blocks passed before the feline summed up her night with a lengthy sigh. The shuffling of clothing was followed by the poetic sound of an aluminum cap being unscrewed. Already had the nun been forced to tap into the alcohol she swindled from the party, or perhaps her loss was simply a worthy excuse to dig deeper into intoxication. Nevertheless, it was a more than warranted noise to hear among their asphalt footsteps. 

After a hearty gulp sounded to her left, Hallia saw the flask be motioned towards her at the corner of her downward stare and heard the liquid slosh invitingly. It was the only thing that could tear her eyes away from the sidewalk. "You want some?" The impulse to extent the bend of her wing outward was shortly obeyed, no part of the canary could find an argument against adding to the fire of her condition. The liquid was harsh and scraped against the back of her throat the whole way down before burning away in the sickened depths of her gullet. Such pain only spurred her to take an even deeper drink without hesitating to breath. It was distracting, deserved. 

"Woah, don't drink all of it! I worked hard to steal that whiskey!" Mary's shout echoed from the suburbs and finally reminded her to lower the flask. A gasp of air quenched the aching in her lungs, but everywhere else appreciated the enervating heat that radiated threateningly from her stomach. Hallia shuddered during the motion to return the container, not even giving an assuring glance to accompany it. She felt it be swiped greedily from her soul patch's influence, and only a fraction of her felt the will to apologize. "What the hell's up with that? You're far too much of a lightweight to chug like that, especially with what you've already had tonight." 

"I dunno. This really wasn't all that successful a night for me, either. I figure I'm entitled to passing out in a dumpster somewhere like the trash I am," the canary muttered, still reeling to keep the deluge of fire down for just long enough to feel its effects seep into her blood. 

Mary's first response was to break out into a fit of chuckling, which didn't particularly help the seriousness at which the statement was made. Not that it was something she could blame the cat for, this whole storm cloud that lingered above Hallia's head was entirely her own fault. Hanging out with someone distant like Mary was like a convenient kind of failsafe to keep that gloom contained. Eventually enough, laughter would transition into comprehensible words. "Aah, it sounds like you had a great time asking Maxie out, then? What could have gone so terribly wrong that you would try to down five ounces of whiskey first chance?" 

She was apprehensive to answer at first, but imagined that her pouting would be twice as childish than simply imparting what had happened. "I, uh.. I fucked up a bit. A lot more than usual, actually, because by the end he was kissing another girl as he walked out the door and stopped acknowledging my existence somewhere on the way. I kept procrastinating all night and wasting too much time waiting for my chance to get at him while he was away from the game. You know, I probably didn't have much chance to begin with regardless of whether I pestered him or not." A hard lump had swollen in her throat and refused to be swallowed. It felt like the urge to cough up a sob, but she resented the pathetic notion and tried to ignore it instead. 

"Pff. You fucked up?" Mary said with a scoff. "Didn't I already tell you that guy was ninety-five percent asshole before you even made the attempt? A timid little thing like you was never going to get far with him, no matter how good your plumage looked at the time. When he spoke to your the first time, it was probably just him making sure there was at least one person eager to give him a bed and a hand. Don't take it personally, but you really were kinda were doomed from the start. I was just wondering if you'd actually pull it off or not." 

"Well I couldn't, though I can't find the heart to blame him anymore than myself. There was plenty more I could've been doing to prevent that kind of thing from happening, and it was my pickiness that got me stuck in that mess in the first place. If I hadn't had such high expectations for myself then I wouldn't have been so gullible." Hallia bit back a sigh as they passed beneath another stoic streetlight amidst the inky urban darkness. Sleepiness had already begun to pull at her eyelids, a keen sign that her body had already begun to protest from weariness and alcohol. If only the sting of the freezing breeze hadn't partnered itself with the feeling rather than clashed with it. 

The cat brought the back of their hand playfully across her shoulder. "Hey hey, none of that mopey shit while I'm around. You know damn well that guy was an idiot, and I will not have you crying all over yourself all the way back to my place. So what if you didn't get his number? It's the real world, and one golden rule is that hardly anyone is going to end up liking you. Your best bet now is to get hammered and get over it, and you're horrible at part two." 

Hallia held her tongue, for there was nothing to say that wasn't part of the same quest for self-pity as it always was. She wasn't exactly being presented with some groundbreaking revelation by being told her that heart was easily penetrated by the softest of issues. These kinds of nights didn't feel much easier to trudge through than the hardest times she could remember, and she knew that was wrong. Despite that fundamental knowledge and the burden she inflicts upon others because of it, it was still such a terrible challenge to overcome the gloom. Mary actually lost something of value tonight and she's already blown right past it with just a swig of whiskey, why did this minor rejection sting so badly? 

The neighborhood's vanity seemed to grow more and more humbled the longer they sought to travel in a single direction. Getting to the party in the first place was the difficult part, finding their way back was as easy as walking to the edge of the tree and circling the outer ring until they stumbled upon the transportation hub once more. All sidewalks must end eventually, lest she thinks the quickest way back was to jump straight off and impact into the dirt... It was slightly frightening that the furthest recesses of her mind didn't actually find much humor in that thought. Where was the gentle numbing of the toxicity in her blood when she needed it? This empty road certainly wasn't doing well enough to occupy her mood, which was only going to fester more with time. Or she at least needed a place of solitude to properly sweat it out and probably drag a few tears into the open with it. 

Not all had been shrouded with shadows by the time they had tromped nearer to where the district's boundaries laid. Fauna, in its shining absolution along the cloudless eastern sky, found a way to peer just above the horizon and illuminated around the homes they passed. The scene would have probably sparked a feeling of somber beauty that she might have even stopped to appreciate in its entirety, but the moment had been muted to the canary that gazed upon the scene now. Still, it served at least small amount to calm her nerves from what they were. The main problem to cure lied with the baneful inner voice that plagued the fringes of otherwise innocent thoughts. The same one that convinced her to think far too much on her flaws and past shortcomings until they became relevant in the present. That, it did not do much to deter. 

"Hey Mary," Hallia finally shattered the repetition of their footfall. "When we get to the station, you think I could split off and get to your house later on? I- hmm. I want to take the shuttle and go the long way around. So that I don't end the night feeling this sour, you know? It should give me enough time to short this shitty mood out." 

It was unsure whether Mary's slow response was due to deep consideration or the lethargy of the alcohol in her veins. "What? Why would you want to do that? It's like, one in the morning. How would stalling out getting to sleep make you feel any better about yourself?" 

"I think it's more about being alone," her reply was almost too soft to hear above the wind. "If I went to sleep feeling like I do now, the hangover would probably carry it over into tomorrow and ruin the day before it even began. It'd be best to sort myself out while there's still whiskey in me, and I've only ever been able to do that while completely by myself. I never could let myself fall apart while other people were around." The shrug she finished with came accompanied by a hum of similar notion. Reiterating her gentle confusion about how her foolish emotions worked felt redundant, but that was also probably another false nitpick made to be believed. 

"That's a weird way of going about it. You'd think that passing out would let you forget about all this a lot sooner, but I suppose you are kind of a freak." A moment of thought part the nun's response in half, the second part came as forthright as possible. "Hmm.. nah." 

"Wh- what? Why not?" 

Mary met her eyes, expression uncharacteristically serious. "Because that's dumb. You know I don't like hanging out with angsty people, and I know I don't like hanging out with angsty people, that's probably why you want to run off by yourself anyway. But I firmly believe that your idea is stupid, and that I should come with you regardless," she said, arms crossed like an internal deal had been solidified. "I mean, if it didn't work all those other times, how would going alone help now? Have you ever even tried to talk it out with someone, or were you always too much of a pussy to try on the chance that someone was going to worry?" 

The canary looked away, lungs dazed at the reaction she had gotten. The most she expected was an apathetic one or two word agreement that would become mist upon exiting her mouth and be blown away by a gust. They would have parted ways at the station and that would have been that. Now, though, she was uncertain of how to react. "...Yeah, I'm pretty sure I've tried that before. Most friends get tired very quickly of hearing me spew the same incessant drama every time something gets through to me. It's easier on everyone to just bottle it up and shout into a pillow later." 

"Well knock it off, then. That is the cheesiest and most retarded series of excuses I have ever had to keep hearing people use. You haven't done it quite yet, but there is nothing that gets me angrier at someone than when they start moping around super obvious and just reply with 'Ooh nooo, nothing's wrooong. I'm fiiine!' No shit something's wrong, you wouldn't look like your mom just died if everything was peachy! At least be honest if you want to actually keep any friends." Mary used her arms to emphasize her disdain, painting a rather vivid illustration of an insecure acquaintance she had met in the past. 

Seeing such a strong of a reaction stem from the feline, Hallia felt a fresh wave of apprehension hit her ruthlessly in the gut. The thanks she held in her throat for attempting to come along held too much gravity to meet with sound, and there was little that could follow the outburst. She didn't want to be the downer that ruined people's days just by juxtaposition. That was why she hid it away, it was one of the few favors she could actually offer anyone. The edge she would have to walk as to not become that person for Mary was extremely fine, made even more dangerous from how it was prodded to happen anyway. But maybe that was a risk more worthwhile than the security? She shook her head and huffed through her nose at the thought, realizing that this panic was over annoying Mary of all people. Granted, it was some unprecedented surge of generosity that the nun would behave like this, but that didn't really warrant locking up and swallowing her tongue for fear that it would leak some semblance of self-deprecation. It was pretty obvious her brand of sadness was the most popular by a large, boring margin. 

The road sprawled onward with the slight curvature of the district gently guiding their inaccurate footsteps as they eventually found the outer ridge, the cold still trying hard to bite through the faux heat radiating from their cores. Their steady breathing smelled of familiar chemicals and blew back into their faces with each syllable of the clumsy stride. Just past the barrier that separated ground from open air was the impressive scene of far-off plateaus and mountains painted barely visible with moonlight. Hallia absorbed the view while she walked, taking in the immensity of so many miles of smoggy distance was by far more preferable than continuing to bathe in her own scrutinizing thoughts. The contours of the geography were difficult to trace without concentrating, making it easy to overwhelm any tiny voice of disapproval that strayed from idle introspection. Flora's edges was certainly more interesting than common depression, after all. 

It wasn't much longer until the transportation hub came into view while they traveled along this auspicious route. Its architecture differed greatly from the homes that spread outward from its entrance; both the domed roof and great supporting pillars made certain no one could mistake it for anything else, though the giant glowing sign at its front would help most in that effort. The space between them and the building closed with the passing moments, they stepped into the entrance just beneath the bright neon letters. Within, the ominous atmosphere almost immediately crashed down over the top of them. The lights were dim and sparse, the gravity reactor below rumbled and hummed constantly, and there was not a single sign of life throughout the entire compound. Right past the teleportation chambers they pressed, deeper into this dead place and toward the only means of non-magical transportation about Canopy. 

Through the windows of one such shuttle that came into view was a light far more intense than all that solemnly glowed around the abandoned station. It waited patiently for any passengers with places to be to board it, but the nature of the empty night meant that, even in a city like this, it would be several hours more before anyone acknowledged it. That is, unless the cat and canary who prowled at this harrowing hour arrived to give some fresh (albeit drowsy) energy to the otherwise sleeping machinery. The two navigated swiftly through the proper pivoting gates and approached the open doors welcoming their newfound presence. There were no fines to pay for riding these things this late at night, since only the overly-shrewd and drunk would ever care. That fact did not change with their arrival. 

Hallia almost instantly felt the full brunt of the temperature difference from the within the shuttle compared to the barren outside. A tide of heat filled her lungs with numbness as well as washed over her feathers, beginning to sink in where only cold had reigned prior. She didn't notice how truly depraved her skin was of warmth until now, where the sting of exposure was replaced with a throbbing while she grew slowly accustomed to these well-conditioned insides. Though her outward reaction was little more than a wince in the process of finding a seat. Mary followed her readily through the opening and made a likewise gasp towards the overly-cozy conditions of the car. 

"Woah! How do they keep these things so cheap? It's like an oven in here," the nun exclaimed, glancing all about the bright cabin as if it were an alien landscape. 

"Why so surprised? I figured you would be the kind to use these more often than most, what with the negligible price and all," Hallia spoke in a monotonous grumble as she hopped up onto a plastic bench in the very far corner and settled into it. Not the most comfortable perches in the world, as it seemed was the typical dilemma tonight, but it wasn't as if she could ask for any better. 

"Hey, you callin' me cheap?" exclaimed Mary from the other side still of the shuttle. "For your information, I only really ride these things when I have to. The best way to avoid bad weather is by staying in it for as short a time as possible, and nothing's quite as fast as short-range teleportation. Why should I sit on one of these for forever when I could just BE somewhere?" 

The canary hummed in uninterested acknowledgement before turning her whole restlessly to face the window. A light rose from her wing as it was raised, Hallia blankly stared at the screen that materialized at her front from the emerging gleam. Her soul patch had connected to the station's system from local proximity and automatically sought her opinion of where to go in the city. The same screen, though in a different and more primitive format to facilitate opossum passengers, lit up at the front end for Mary to choose with. The closest choice to their ultimate destination was still two stops away from here. That wouldn't be much of a problem, however, as the dearth of people would end up prioritizing their input above all else. It wouldn't be more than a few brief moments spent at those two stations, assuming there really wasn't anyone there waiting and no other shuttles remained at the location. Still, it wouldn't do too much to lessen the original length of the ride. 

The screen shrunk away, and soon after did a reverberation growl from the floor and walls as whirring mechanical engines married to magical influences were abruptly awakened to spirit away its patrons. An airtight hiss came from the doors slipping securely together at the middle. Just after the rumbling lessened did a sudden jerk mark that they had finally taken motion, although it nearly knocked her over in the process. She looked up to the glass pane after having recovered and watched the mountains begin to shift mere millimeters by. There was no telling the speed at which they were moving from this set of windows, though surely not very fast by the look of it. 

Essentially, her timer had begun to tick down from then on. A stalling to wait out this hollow despair that had taken up residence in her chest and head, but peculiar in that she was not alone to do it. There was no sobs to force out, no breathy murmurs of hatred to whisper at herself, not a single thing she could think of to vent without solitude by her side. It caused the despair caught in her throat to be directionless and broad. While more tame than what she used to excise her moods, there was no longer outlet of herself to blame for this melancholy evening. To think that it was actually more difficult to feel better after having gotten over Maxwell than the other way around-- it was ridiculous. She was just unhappy. Meaninglessly, unswervingly unhappy. 

In the window's well-polished shine reflected a sunken expression cast by the canary just inches away. The rest of the car shifted into view, the mirroring effect of the glass becoming far more conspicuous than the faint outlines of shrunken land forms it was a vista for. It might help if she were actually allowed to stare out into the distance without accidentally seeing her own disheartened face every few seconds. Not that it helped much to watch the night roll by, but mood lighting was definitely a factor with these kinds of recovery. Mainly that total darkness was a great tool for curling up and crying properly. 

It was such a polished sheen that she could quite easily survey even the smallest details of the car without even a twitch of her neck muscles. Right down to Mary laying impatiently atop one of the opposite benches and kicking her feet in the air, completely uncaring that she was wearing a short skirt. That boredom wasn't born from nothing, either. The entire reason the nun had to endure this drawn-out ride was because Hallia wanted to run away and hide from the world. She didn't have to come along at all, seemingly only interested in tagging along because she cared enough for her friend, as they both knew nothing spectacular was waiting for them on a slow and empty shuttle. Hell, Mary had made it very clear on multiple other occasions that she despises those who stubbornly linger on their emotions for too long. The fact that she had forced herself to come along was already a massive indicator that something significant had passed through her at the opportunity. And here they were, sitting still and silently while they were carried along a completely uneventful distance. 

Eventually enough, Mary's boredom had reached such an unbearable flatness that her reflection hopped up uneasily from the bench and started towards the canary. She must have thought whatever Hallia was so staring at with such fervor was more interesting than the blinding lights on the ceiling, unknowing that the view she sought only came in a storm of introspection. Such was something the nun would probably mever come to see without having the proper unnecessary baggage upon witnessing her own blank face in the mirror. After several moments of nothing, driven by the need to fill the space with something more than tension and rumbling, she would break the monotony on her voice. "So, what? Were you having a bad day before this, or was getting that falcon really that important to you? 'Cuz I could hook you up with some much higher quality guys if you're willing to have someone not as handsome." 

If Hallia had lips, they would have been pursed. "No, it's not so much the peregrine anymore. Well, it is a little bit, but that's more of an excuse to feel worse about myself than anything. I've always been trying to work these kinds of things out of my system, but it's easier to keep throwing myself under buses instead of moving on. As you could probably guess, I'm not all that successful with having a personal life... Maybe you're right. Maybe I do just need to get hammered enough that I can get over it." 

"The drinks aren't going to help you if they haven't already, honey. Not at this point, anyway. All it's been doing is turning you into a girlier crybaby, which reminds me to be thankful I'm not that kind of emotional drunk. You'd probably have to get to the point of puking all over the place and passing out to feel any relief, and as much of a lightweight you are, that's probably not going to happen with what I've got on me at the moment." Mary pressed her forehead to the freezing glass and sighed through her nose, fogging up a great deal where the breath touched. "Well? What are you going to do about it other than stare at nothing the whole way home? Surely brooding and drinking aren't the only solutions you have to this." 

"Ha, yeah. That's also a thing I never was able to figure out. I always assume that a few shots is enough to prevent feeling like shit, but it usually helps do the opposite. It's pretty hard to get the lesson through my head, I guess," the voice which left her mouth was far more quiet than before and lacked any of the edges her words should have had. It really did sound like she was on the verge of tears, though it was doubtful her eyes would them to spill while still in the presence of another. "Sorry. My only consolation is that I didn't become this huge of a letdown during the party itself. I'll get over it, I always do." 

The feline intentionally blew condensation into the window and stared at the murky result. "And I thought I was a masochist. Petunia was right, you whip yourself more than a monk does. Not even in a kinky way; just a normal, sad one. It's no wonder why you end up seeming so boring from the outside. Boring is the easiest way to not be a deadbeat, that's why you see people working white-collar jobs in the first place," Mary spoke with similar somber tones as if the negativity hollowing out Hallia's chest was contagious. The softness surprised her, threatening to send shivers down her spine and flare her plumage on end. The voice echoed in her mind and diverted distraught synapses, but more so did it remind her of the sleepiness hanging off her eyelids. 

"Yeah," her response finally came, barely more than a whisper. There was little else the canary could think of to perpetuate a conversation about problems she had no answers to. She would have preferred Mary to keep talking in that same soothing way, but it would be too strange to ask exactly that with no context. Hallia had no idea she could sounds so... consoling. 

Momentum bred disorientation as their ride slowed agonizingly, dizzying them thoroughly before completing the stop. A shrill ring chimed to signal their arrival at the commercial district station. Following that was a moment of sheer quiet while the system registered that there only was two souls among the entirety of all waiting shuttles. Once more had the rumbling erupt just beneath their seats, the canary stared piously into the far distance. The angle at which she viewed the land surrounding Canopy had drastically changed from the first glance she took from this seat, mostly for the darker with how Fauna had been obstructed now by the Ovis' trunk. Only the furthest mountains in this direction were still graced by its silver light. 

It was at the very corners of the tree's shadow that she could see they had already begun to inch along the next leg of the journey. One more stop in between until they were to depart, two more stretches for her to exorcise this dismal feeling from her system. A task easier said than done with the unlimited access the devious whisper in her head had to anything that depressed. Her trudging career, crippled social life, uninterested hobbies, buried insecurities; it found them all. Of course, with sitting next to Mary, it felt a slightly easier to discard that voice and let the ambient perceptions of her surroundings fill that gap. But then what? She didn't feel any better because of it. If anything, feeling the scarlet overcompensation that dressed her body only reignited the malicious noises she had deafened and gave that sorrow a purpose to be. It's a surprise she even puts in any effort at all if this mediocrity was the just desserts she had earned. 

"Mary?" her meek voice barely carried over the ambiance. 

"Hm?" quickly replied the nun, who was otherwise occupied drawing figures into the condensation she intentionally made in the window. 

How do I become more like you? "...How do you stay so optimistic all the time? I mean, you don't accomplish anything and you leech off of society in terrible ways, but you're so-.. so happy still. Proud, even. What does it take to not care about anything like that?" 

"Practice and passion," she happily replied, oblivious to remarks made. "Those are the two most basic things you need in the pursuit of feeling good about yourself, sans a roof over your head and booze in your belly." Mary pushed herself upright in her seat so that their eyes were level. "I'm passionate about... Well, you know what I'm passionate about. Anyway, in practice comes experience, which means you're less scared about the next attempt than the last no matter what it is you're trying to do. You know more about what you're doing, you feel better because of that, and some semblance of self-esteem is made. Put those two things together and you got yourself something to live by. Once that happens, everything that matters tends to mold very selectively around you." 

Her reflection took the foreground as Hallia pressed her own head into the glass and internally questioned her silly demons. "I don't really have anything I'm very passionate about. I'm just kind of there most of the time." 

"Yeah, I noticed," Mary candidly blurted out. "You care way too much about too many things that literally do not matter in the slightest. Since you've been flitting about in random directions in terms of emotional foundation, you probably go from mild interest to interest trying to please everyone you can in case it's something that sticks. It scatters you, ends up making you feel inferior because there's nothing you could dare say you're superior at. Working a boring white-collar job all day certainly wouldn't help, but you hardly do anything in your down time anyways." 

"How do I find that passion, then? How do I finally start making progress if I somehow haven't after all this time? It feels like the past three years I've lived have been almost wasted, and I don't know what I'm doing wrong. It's not even about the depression, I just can't fucking figure it out in general," she was almost pleading at this point, her voice on the verge of cracking. It never would have occurred to her before that Mary would be the one she confided most in, but somehow the feline would come to shoulder her problems with the most sincerity she's felt in ages. 

The corners of the nun's mouth raised the slightest amount. "Isn't it obvious? You're supposed to find something to be passionate about and be obsessed. Something that you'd gladly die doing and feel perfectly fine about your obituary after the fact. You'll only stop giving a shit to useless outlets if you've already placed every one you own in a single basket. Let it define you, and suddenly a fuckwad standing you up at a party doesn't even register on the radar anymore." Her eyes turned back towards the window's view, almost wistfully so with how her gaze drooped. "I've been around all sorts of insecure people, my kind of lifestyle melds with theirs and gives them a sense validity or something like that. They think bedding me is some sort of achievement, as if I wouldn't go down on someone for five nibbles and a sandwich. I can tell you quite a few things about the topic, anyway." 

A chuckle caught in Hallia's throat, a pleasant surprise considering she almost thought the cough was going to emerge a sob instead. "You probably know plenty more than me about my own problems. I couldn't be as desperate as they are, can I? The guys that chase after you, I mean. There really isn't much gratification to be gained from picking one of the lowest hanging fruit there is. The fact that you're so okay with that being that in the first place is a real testament to how concrete you are." 

She shrugged. "Hey, everyone's got some bad habit they can't help but indulge in. Luckily for you, mental self-flagellation is more common than being a super slut. Shake that off and you'll already be better than a quarter of the world's population. All it takes is a hobby worth taking to the grave and all your mental bullshit will up and disappear just like that. It's that easy. Or a cause, you could use anything now that I think about it. Do you at least have anything in particular that keeps you from jumping off the tree and forgetting to fly?" 

"I- uh. Hm." Something that keeps her sane, that shouldn't be all too hard to think of. "...I guess you could say I'm still deeply indebted to the Quibbles, and that it's the primary reason why I choose stick around. They've done so much for me that I can hardly stand it, you know? My situation right now, while pretty stagnant, would be on the better part of a tragedy had they not provided me with a home and a job. And they still let me work there even when I'm pretty much useless nowadays, just thinking about how much turmoil I've caused them over the years makes me feel sick and pitiful." 

"Well that one won't do at all. Petunia is such a softie that I doubt she'd let you take on squirehood. Or are there land rights involved in that? Wait, nevermind." Mary pressed a finger to her temple in an attempt to part the lethargy weighing down her thoughts. "I mean, it's not really a good road in general to go down if you're looking for actualization. She wouldn't want you to feel particularly indebted, rather for you to 'spread your wings' in every sense of the phrase. Mn, that was clever. Got anything else?" 

Hallia traced a distant mountain with her eyes, squinting to absorb its faint outline. "Not really. I generally just go about existing, that's about all. Finding something as powerful as what you're talking about is going to be a fluke if it ever ends up happening for me, because there's no direction to it that I can possibly see. I don't have much drive to try out new things anymore." 

"Are you saying you only hang out with me for the kicks?" The nun actually managed a pretty convincing expression of hurt for a moment, but the facade quickly deteriorated from the following fit of chuckling. "Kidding, I've always been a magnet for people trying to fill the empty parts of themselves with cigars and alcohol. You could basically say I'm the ambassador of slowly killing yourself. But here we are regardless, two idiots drunk off their asses sitting on a shuttle at two in the morning talking about our dainty little feelings. That's what I like about you. The next person I could call as good of a friend is Petunia, and you've seen how limited that term is there. Without your dumb insecurities, a cat with a stick up her ass would pretty much be the only thing I have that lasts longer than until the next morning. So yeah, it sucks that we ended up losing tonight, but at the very least we didn't lose alone." 

A jerking motion hit the car once more, similarly to before did the unbalanced canary shift atop her plastic perch. Another shrill ding reverberated through the glass her forehead pressed into. One more stop. Obedient to the slim possibilities that someone was actually waiting for at the station this early into the next day, the doors slipped open for a mere few moments before the system's routine had been ran thoroughly and closed them in again. The nauseating movements only made so by her spinning head had lasted none more than ten seconds longer before they steadied out and took the first few steps of the final stretch. 

Even Mary was beginning to look more thoughtful, similarly staring out into the landscape with an expression strangely intense for the body it was attached to. Some twinge of sentimentality connected the two of them on this ride and pierced the whiskey and drowsiness that should have ruled supreme. Hallia couldn't recall a time where the nun had looked quite so contemplative, and it was interesting to wonder what uninvited complexity found its way to circulate in such a simple individual. Neither of them were particularly deeper than the puddles they stepped through on the way here, but gears were absolutely turning in that shallowness. Just that was enough to soften the bitter flavor the canary felt in her mouth, even seeing such a simply-pleased creature find cognitive interest in her was reassuring. 

She did prefer this broad kind of despair to the familiar pain that pressured her chest earlier. It was more logical, if that made much sense in itself. Like that the feeling merely took a little concentrated thought to wish away instead of a pillow to violently expunge from her body. Not that she had any real solutions or revelations, but she had calmed down from earlier. So much that, when left to her own silent devices and wandering gaze, Hallia felt her head begin to droop lower against the window. Here came the secondary effects that gratuitous amounts of alcohol had on her system after the gloom had faded away: a sleepiness paralleled only by drinking cold medicine after having stayed awake for two days straight. 

Her condition was only made worse by the somber vibrations beneath her feet and the incredibly pleasant white noise of gentle machinery. The infants of dreams crept up just beyond the idle thrum of her mind, tempting snippets of processes that made little sense by themselves but were seductive regardless. Just a second with her eyes shut would surely alleviate some of the feeling, but was it worth the risk? It was hard enough to think straight as it was now, let alone calculate the problems associated with falling asleep next to Mary. The cold traveling through this glass was pretty much the only thing that kept her from tucking her head beneath her wing and falling under. 

"Hey, that's not depression at all!" Mary's voice served to shake the stupor that very nearly took complete control of her conscious. The canary glanced to her side with a thankfulness barely realized. "If you're going to knock yourself out so deeply that you fall out your seat, make sure you make that high-pitched squeak again. That shit was so hilarious the first time." 

A gravely groan escaped her beak first as protest while a pink glove rubbed at her eyes. "That was one damn time, Mary. I TOLD you my tail got caught in a screw. If you think it's all that bad when your tiny little hairs get plucked, imagine something four times as thick and firmly embedded in your skin getting torn out by your own weight." 

"Yeah, yeah. Can't let your sensitive little butt get caught on a chair again. Man, I really wish I had recorded that. There are people that would pay generously for that kind of comedy..." the nun mused on while Hallia struggled to keep her eyes from losing focus, meaning most of their words just went out her other ear. Most people would kill to be able to tune Mary out this well, though they'd probably also like to keep conscious during the fact. It was this damn heat that soaked so comfortably into her feathers which ushered her so close to the dreaming realm. She could hardly hear the next time Mary spoke up. "Have I ever told you how adorable you look when you're struggling desperately to keep from passing out?" 

The words slowly registered. "Probably," she mumbled, her forehead growing numb to the glass she pressed against as a final defense of stimulus. Somewhere in the background of her struggle reached an arm that wrapped around her back and rested on the opposite shoulder. The feline closed the distance between their faces, whispering into the side of her head. 

"Oh nooo, don't fall asleep! What if I decide to do lewd things to you while you're out cold? You wouldn't be able to stop me at aaall..." It was much more relaxing when she spoke frankly like earlier, this blowing in her ear only offered a tether by which to grab onto. She was fully unwilling to impart how cozy it actually was for Mary to wrap around her like this. That kind of knowledge would only spur her on worse than before, and she would probably be doomed to being aggressively massaged and soothed. 

"Pff. What are you, gay? There's plenty enough room literally everywhere else on the shuttle." Hallia murmured back. 

She could practically hear Mary's smirk. "You kidding? I've banged people twice as feminine as you. And it only gets easier the more my liver cries out in agony that night, too." 

Their warmth began to intermingle in addition to the setting growing calmer by the minute, a vicious combination to add to the weight of her eyelids. Hallia could barely keep them open for more than a few seconds before yearning too much for the relief of darkness that came with giving in. She'd have pushed the nun off already if this position wasn't so welcoming. "Hey, I've been trying. I'd like to see you pull off this dress half as well, but you might start suffocating from having so much fur covered." 

But the cat didn't seem to hear her words, instead being too preoccupied with ruffling through her feathers playfully. "Oh my god, you have no right to be this warm. Any hotter and you'd have a real convincing fever going on. Mmn.." Mary's curious hands continued to explore despite Hallia's lackluster attempts to swat her away. There was apparently enough pleasant radiation emitting from her that it warranted having their entire bodies rubbing together provocatively. The prodding was plenty irritating enough to keep her afloat for that much longer, enough to make sure those hands didn't attempt to travel beneath her dress. 

"Knock it off." A pink hand bonked the nun on the nose, the impact stunning her enough to prevent any further molestation. Though it was not quite enough to make her climb down. 

"Ow, what?" Mary's muffled complaint escaped from beneath the paw over the end of her face. "There's no need to get all punchy. I'm pretty sure I've had sex on one of these things before just fine, and it's the dead of night anyway. Nobody's around to see, and nobody will be for a decent while." 

"First of all, no. Second, I am on the brink of passing out every other second and could not possibly reciprocate. Third, cameras." Using the reflection, Hallia pointed up towards the general area of where a black dome stuck out from the ceiling. She probably should have assumed this kind of thing would happen. After all, it was Mary she was hanging out with in the middle of the night. This kind of situation was the smut the nun lived to make, things she couldn't quite foresee with the cloud looming over her head on the way here. No amount of alcohol on either side could disguise the most basic parts of their natures. Her own senseless depression, and Mary's unquenchable libido. 

A groan rose in volume next to the canary's head. "You are the only person that actually manages to be less fun the more drinks you have. This is the absolute perfect time and place, it can't get any better than it is right now, and you'd rather go down on a blanket." Mary sounded defeated, but she was still entirely persistent in using Hallia as a body pillow. "I was going to say a bunch of stupid stuff in the middle to annoy you, too. What a bummer." Her voice rose in pitch to a mocking degree the next time she spoke. "It sucks that you couldn't get a boyfriend, Hallia- kun. Maybe I could be your boyfriend tonight, hmm?" 

"I would have probably smacked you," Hallia muttered nearly inaudibly. She couldn't help but start leaning against the weight that pressed into the side of her head, it was too comfortable to ignore at this sensitive a point. The reluctance she possessed about the form wrapped affectionately around her being Mary faded considerably with the ability to process cognitive thought, and only the softness of the world around her remained. When her eyes fell shut this time, there was not nearly enough willpower left to open them again. 

Just barely was she sensible enough to recognize the ring that bounced off the shuttle's walls. The canary jumped an inch into the air and soon after attempted to squint at the mountains to see if they still inched by, but her consciousness threatened to collapse down once more had she not raised an ethereal hand to rub the urge away from her eyes. It was already the third and final stop. How many moments had blurred by while they were resting? Didn't they only just leave the last station? She could have sworn... Had it really been that long? A yawn caught in her throat and barreled out her beak without so much as asking the brain. Mary sputtered and moaned in protest to being shaken off, obtaining an even tighter grip on the soft plumage she sought to steal warmth and contentment from. For once, Hallia kind of did wish they could just forget the world and fall asleep together like that. 

"... It's our stop. Get up," she said and pushed further. The resulting stirring Mary made was more akin to oil slipping off of water as she finally obeyed the nagging request. Slumping down beside her into the seat, the feline found the earlier yawn to be painfully contagious. 

Neither of them really had the energy to do more other than wordlessly stretch their weary legs and lumber toward the darkened exit. The infographics which attempted to barrage them upon their leave were incomprehensible at first glance. Not because of the legibility or language, but because the canary's vision could hardly adjust long enough to understand more than a tiny segment of the holograms. She probably didn't need to know much more than 'Thank', anyway. 

The immediate chill that washed maliciously over her would at least ensure that they wouldn't drop asleep in the middle of the road on the way to the church a few blocks over. But with that necessary evil came also the melting of drowsy obstructions in her cognitive centers, a better understanding of what had occurred over the whole ride here. It stood now that there was no soaked shroud of despondency clinging to her mood and dragging the rest of her thoughts down. Thanks to the friendship and reassurance of Mary, a combination of words that had never before been formulated without sarcasm even inside her head. Hallia glanced candidly over her shoulder while an automatic gate summoned the electric strength to move, towards the shambling feline of whom she had felt a peculiar twinge of gratitude. For only an awkward second longer did she stare before turning back to the opened way and continuing on. 

It was such a strange fondness that she would contemplate it even as they stepped into the bright light of downtown streets for the final time tonight. A pang of guilt had manifested itself in her chest, she was so certain that Mary was heartless before that some display of affection as average as this was seemingly a massive event. No, something else had definitely taken place back there. That couldn't have been the same apathetic merrymaker she knew from before, could it? The only tender feelings Hallia would ever imagine the nun having were towards abusing substances and carnal pleasures. But that... Stop. This was probably making a big deal out of nothing, and they had JUST went over how she was supposed to be breaking these kinds of habits. Just let it be and it'll probably work itself out without needing all of this over-analyzing. 

The corner they crossed was familiar even in the dead of night, her memory of the region stood just as well now than if it had been drenched in daylight anyway. This had been a route well-rehearsed by both the treading of land and sky. The only factor between then and now was the atmosphere that lingered in the air, something that would have been drastically different had someone not been there to talk to her. It'd instead be the same routine of manic self-inflicted suffering until she settled into a much more bearable version of it. But now, she had felt little else besides tired. That was surprisingly a vast improvement from what she would usually feel like after having endured a night like this one. Where there would normally be dreariness in the black shadows of concrete corners, a refreshing peace flourished instead like somehow a victory had taken place. The change was nice, and so was the emotional warmth that came from the cat walking side by side with her. Awkward, maybe a little uninvited, but nice.


End file.
